Order . . .

(http://www.popmatters.com/feature/183929-the-18-stock-ways-of-beginning-and-ending-a-song/)
". . . Songs rarely play in a randomly determined order; artists and bandmates often agonize over the playlist for weeks or months. . . Think of an album like a movie or a book. Directors and writers order their scenes and chapters in a very specific way to illuminate narrative and thematic content, and in any good film or piece of literature, each section builds off the others so that there’s a satisfying conclusion. . . But . . . it’s not something that calls attention to itself, since each part works together organically to make this seamless whole. . . taking care not to make songs appear one after the other if they are too similar in structure, tone or style. . .the first and last songs of every album—the intro and outro songs, as I’m going to call them—hold special importance. These are the tracks that introduce the listener to the artist’s world and compel you to come back again. . ."  


Ring In The Rightness
from OHO's forthcoming release Gazebo [OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak]

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube
Also, be sure to visit: www.rayjozwiak.com and www.ohomusic.com

Tweet  

Follow me on Blogarama

Creativity . . .

(from http://twistedsifter.com/2012/03/15-famous-quotes-on-creativity/)
“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dali

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people” – Leo Burnett

“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club” – Jack London

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try” – Dr. Seuss




. . . "Just when you think that it's slipping away forever, you have to grab it by the tail and not let it go"- Ray Jozwiak


Cognition
©2016 Raymond M. Jozwiak

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube
Also, be sure to visit: www.rayjozwiak.com and www.ohomusic.com

Tweet  

Follow me on Blogarama

Actually . . .

. . . Murray, about the statues . . .

In rebuttal to https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/19/naked-donald-trump-statue-satire-ageist-body-shaming . . .

Regarding the five Trump statues, so let met get this straight, you feel 'NB' (a genteel designation based upon your own) is not good social critique through art because it gives way to "blind hatred that obscures their intent." Seems to me that any intelligent, fact-respecting citizen who has paid any attention to 'DT' (maintaining the MO), and how could they or any other citizens NOT-  thanks to all the free media attention he has managed,  has formed an opinion of DT that hovers somewhere in the 'don't care-for' range, and hopefully not quite as extreme as true hate. But that opinion is anything but 'blind.'

You say that the work's "slumpy, distended belly, withered buttocks and sagging pectorals, crosses callously into generalized ageism and body-shaming."  I do believe that even DT himself might characterize that description as a bit too "politically correct." My aging, a-Phelpsian body would certainly make a poor cover for Playgirl (does that still exist?), but I am far from offended by, don't forget that DT HIMSELF invited visions of his 'man-parts' into our consciousness at one of the Republican primary debates, the NB sculptures.

Let's face it, this man is seriously (I think) running for the presidency of the United States of America. He is a television 'personality' by definition. He purposely taunts persons and peoples with all the forethought of a corner-bar drunk. He is a free target. He belongs to the public. I, for one, think the sculptures were quite funny and clever.  Maybe the pieces are not Da Vincis, but I truly suspect the artist was never under any such delusion.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube
Also, be sure to visit: www.rayjozwiak.com and www.ohomusic.com

Tweet  

The Artist . . .

". . . A real artist is not one who has taken up art as his profession, but a man predestined and foredoomed to it; and such an artist can be picked out from a crowd by anyone with the slightest perspicacity.  You can read in his face that he is a man apart, a man who does not belong, who feels that he is recognized and is being watched; there is somehow an air of royalty about him and at the same time an air of embarrassment.  A prince walking incognito among the people wears a rather similar expression.  But the incognito doesn't work, Lisaveta!  Disguise yourself, put on civilian costume, dress up like an attache or a guards lieutenant on leave-you will hardly have raised your eyes and uttered a word before everyone will know that you are not a human being but something strange, something alien, something different . . .

"But what is an artist? I know of no other question to which human complacency and incuriosity has remained so impervious.  'That sort of thing is a gift,' say average decent folk humbly, when a work of art has produced its intended effect upon them, and because in the goodness of their hearts they assume that exhilarating and noble effects must necessarily have exhilarating and noble causes, it never enters their heads that the origins of this so-called 'gift' may well be extremely dubious and extremely disreputable. . . . It's well know that artists are easily offended; and it's also well know that this is not usually the case with people who have a good conscience and solidly grounded self-confidence. . . "
(from Death in Venice by Thomas Mann)

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Help . . .

It's getting really old hearing from theses web music artist 'services' who have the secret to your success.  It's really just the secret to their success because they're plugging THEIR service and the only secret is that you have to give them money.  Then they post the video testimonial.  The 'bait' email says ". . . thanks to our bag of tricks this artist grabbed over 297% more sales and she is going to tell you she did it. . . "

And if you don't read that carefully, you don't realize that that is ALL she does.  In 28 seconds,  this artist simply tells you that she DID IT.

Convinced? . . . me either.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Symbiosis . . .

To many, a rock does not represent a thing of beauty;  at least not beauty as currently acceptably perceived in our (American) culture. But to the eye of the artist (and to the mind of the philosopher), a rock does indeed possess many qualities that can be termed 'beautiful'.  Glassy, course, fine-grained, hard, strong, solid, dense and majestic are a few characteristics that may be possessed by a rock. The Christian scriptures use the image effectively where it is stated, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  A rock evokes strength, conviction and permanence; all qualities of great merit.

A sponge, conversely, is a multi cellular organism with a body full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like membranes sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. A sponge's most recognized and defining quality is its ability to absorb elements from the environment that surrounds it to the advantage of its very self. All known living sponges can remold their bodies, as most types of their cells can move within their bodies and a few can change from one type to another.

A sponge makes its home by attaching itself to a hard surface, such as a rock.  The product of a combination of one hard, impenetrable, immovable, mass surface and one soft, all-absorbent, impressionable and metamorphosing organism existing, thriving and creating as one, in harmony, is a loosely interpreted form of symbiosis. . . 

. . . not unlike what people can do, if they just allow. . .

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Local Gem . . .

Over the course of his career, Maryland native Doug Alan Wilcox has traveled a road from solo acoustic artist through numerous electric bands of various stripes and back again, performing along the way at some of the country's more notable venues as well as countless small cafes and concert spaces.

The sound is a singer/songwriter stew of acoustic folk, blues, soul, and jazz — sophisticated yet as comfortable as a well-worn shirt. The message is uplifting - speaking straight to the human condition. Intimate, thought-provoking and on occasion, wryly humorous, Wilcox delivers music that will stick in your head — as well as your heart…

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD). 

My latest solo release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Work . . .

. . . and other things. . .



I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.
 -Michael Jordan

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
-Thomas A. Edison

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
-Winston Churchill

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door.
-Albert Camus

To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
-William Shakespeare

Constant dripping hollows out a stone.
-Lucretius

If you have no critics you'll likely have no success.
-Malcolm X

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
-Epictetus

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
-Henry David Thoreau

           
                and my personal favorite. . .




An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.
-Charles Horton Cooley

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Dews. . .

. . . Tom, that is. . .

(based upon http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tomdews and http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tomdews2)
Georgia-born singer/songwriter/bluesman TOM DEWS puts guitar/simultaneous harmonica and vocals together to create a satisfying blend of original acoustic folk and blues. Growing up in South Georgia and Central Florida he soaked up roots rhythms and fished the Flint, Ocmulgee, Chatahoochee and Oklawaha rivers. After recent sojourns in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, Dews makes his home now in Washington, DC.

Tom released his first recording, EPIPHANIES & EPITAPHS, after a successful tour in Ireland several years ago. The CD features original songs and instrumentals, some collected from years of playing coffeehouses and bars from Savannah to Minneapolis, and some stuff inspired by the time in Ireland. Reflecting on his musical adventures Dews says, " A novelist creates a fictive dream, and when done well there are revelations for the reader. My interest is in creating a mood, at once mirthful and melancholy - a sort of re-creation of the old 'hearth' experience. Created by artist and audience together, this mood-edifice can generate spontaneous improvisations that are nourishing for everybody - a sort of musical epiphany can strike its seal into the world."

Tom surrounds gritty vocals with deft acoustic guitar and haunting harmonica to provide a satisfying foray down the back roads of literate folk/blues. Collected on his third CD (DRIVING DREAMS), are songs of loss and regret, blues to soothe, and anthems of hope. He counts among his influences Mose Allison, Lyle Lovett, J.J. Walker, Delbert McClinton, Pierce Pettis, Keb Mo and Tom Kimmel. You’ll hear him in his familiar mode here doing the simultaneous guitar/harp thing in an inimitable way, but there are also two piano solo pieces and several National Resophonic instrumentals.

Hear the songs.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet